Redemption

by Ever N. Hayes

  Danny clutched at his own arm and stepped out of the water, climbing up beside the dead sniper. He tore off a strip of the soldier’s uniform and used it to wrap his arm. Then he untucked and unbuttoned the sniper’s shirt and placed a large rock on top of his chest. He buttoned the man’s shirt back up as far as he could, dragged him into the water, and shoved him into the deepest part of the pool. Danny watched him sink and then climbed back up toward Blake. They needed to hide the other bodies to hopefully prevent Qi Jia from narrowing their search to this one river—if they hadn’t already.

  SIXTY-ONE – Mountain Ghosts (Hayley)

  ---------- (Thursday. August 11, 2022.) ----------

  Danny was angry now…perhaps more than he’d ever been. More than I’ve ever seen him anyway. Blake had followed Danny after the escaping sniper and was now helping him come back up the mountain to us. When I saw Danny’s arm bandaged up, I panicked, but he glared at me and waved off my concern. “I’m fine.”

  You don’t look fine. Ava wrapped her arms around him, but he even brushed her off. “Let’s bury these assholes.” He stepped away from Ava.

  Eddie, Blake, and I hurriedly helped him bury the bodies of the other soldiers. Flynn and Ava were on lookout, watching and listening for any approaching danger. Satisfied the bodies wouldn’t be found, we grabbed all our gear and nearly ran down into the valley. Danny wouldn’t tell us what had happened with the last sniper—or even why we were in such an obvious hurry now—except to say we didn’t have to worry about him. I figured Danny knew they were on to us and didn’t want to say it. They are coming.

  We moved steadily downhill for almost an hour before coming to a sudden stop. “Damn,” I heard Blake say.

  I was right behind him. “What?”

  He pointed ahead of us at a large rock and clay wall in the middle of the river.

  “You’re hilarious,” I whispered.

  “It’s a non-sexual double entendre,” he replied. “A dam with a damn big hole in it. Someone blew it up.”

  He appeared to be right. We moved up the north side of the river to the clay wall and looked down the steep waterfall that now split the two sides of the dam—likely the result of a Qi Jia drone strike some time ago. It was a long way down to the river valley below—couldn’t even see the actual base of the falls. “I’ve been here a few times before and never seen more than a controlled stream below this dam. That…”—He pointed at the wide river below. —“looks more like the Mississippi.”

  Flynn, Eddie and Ava had already joined us and Danny was approaching now. “Have you guys gone up there yet?” He pointed at the rock platform above us.

  “No, we were just checking out the damage—looking down the falls,” Blake replied, a slight grin on his face.

  “Would you stop it already?” I elbowed him.

  “How far down is that?” Flynn asked.

  Blake shrugged. “Four hundred, five hundred feet … who knows? A lot higher than Niagara Falls if that gives you a better idea.”

  “So you’d die if you fell down it?”

  Blake smiled at her and nodded. “Twice.”

  “Was that Redlands we saw down there?” I pointed southwest of our location.

  “Yep.” Blake nodded. “Should we check it out, Danny?” Blake, suddenly serious again, pointed at the ledge above us.

  Blake and Danny crawled up to the rock ledge and looked down into the valley. They came back to us a few minutes later. I didn’t like the look on either of their faces. “What?” I asked.

  “Go look for yourself,” Blake nodded toward the ledge. Eddie, Flynn, and I scooted up the slope and peered over the dam’s edge at a mass of soldiers gathered around a bridge below us. The bridge was about three-quarters of a mile west of our perch, with vehicles on both sides and constantly crossing over it—all loaded with soldiers. Some trucks were heading up into the mountains—another hint they didn’t yet know for certain where we were. I noticed they were only going up the north side though. Whoever had blown out the middle of this dam was stupid. There was no road up the south side of the dam anymore. However, there were two helicopters in a large parking lot below the dam’s control tower—three-quarters of the way up the south side. No doubt troops there were watching over the valley. We were in a funnel, and the end was a dead one.

  This roadblock was not at all unexpected—it did cover four of the roads into Redlands and Riverside beyond it. But there didn’t seem to be any way we could descend from the dam without being seen. And even if we could … there didn’t appear to be any way around the soldiers.

  Eddie, Flynn, and I slid back down to Ava, Danny and Blake. “What do we do?” I asked Danny.

  “Nothing we can do. We have to wait for dark.”

  “But—”

  “I know, Hayley—we might not have time for that. If they get Keena to launch the missiles and shut down the Shield before then, we’ll be too late. It won’t even matter then. But honestly, they could fire the missiles whenever—any minute now even. They’re not waiting for our permission.” He seemed defeated.

  What happened to the angry Danny from an hour ago? “We can’t give up.” I looked to Blake and Eddie for support. “And we can’t just sit here for another six hours.”

  “What do you want me to do?” Danny snapped. “What do you propose we do?”

  “Easy, Dan.” Blake gently placed his hand on my brother’s arm. “She just wants to know if there are any alternatives.” Danny relaxed a little and Blake continued. “Can you think of anything? What would you do if it were dark now?”

  Danny took a while before answering. “I don’t know.” He leaned his head back against the rock wall and closed his eyes. “We could steal a helicopter if we had a pilot. No offense, Blake, but you’re just learning how to fly a plane.”

  “None taken.”

  “With a hundred or so guys down there,” Danny continued, “we can’t just go down the face of this dam in broad daylight and walk—or swim—past them. It’s just so exposed—almost no cover…” He paused. “If it were dark it’d be no problem—we’d just climb down around it.”

  “So let’s do that.”

  “Now?” He opened one eye, watched me nod, then closed it again. “Come on Hayley. Didn’t you see the helicopters? They’re watching from above too.”

  “I know…but why not?”

  “I just explained it. It’s ridiculous. You don’t think there are guys on that bridge assigned to just watch this canyon?”

  “But what if we didn’t stand out?”

  Danny still hadn’t opened his eyes. “But we would.”

  “You can be staring at a mountain goat in the Rockies and not see it.” I probably could have explained myself better but I could see Blake nodding.

  “Do I even have to say it?” Danny asked. “We are not—”

  “Actually, Danny, she has a point.” Blake agreed with me.

  Danny opened his eyes and sat up. “Dress up like mountain goats?”

  “No.” Blake shook his head. “But we put three of us in our ghost suits and cover them with dirt, leaves, branches, etc. …”

  “Three suits?” I asked.

  “I’ve got Axel’s too.” Blake patted his backpack.

  I turned to look at Danny. He was actually nodding now. “Okay, maybe. So…we try to sneak down the sides of the dam. Then what?”

  “We blow that bridge,” Eddie cut in. “You still have the C-4 in your pack right?”

  I looked at Eddie in surprise. He’d remained incredibly quiet for the man I knew him to be. I expected Danny to shut that idea down, but he didn’t. Instead he turned to Blake, who nodded.

  “Yes, we still have the explosives.” Danny looked at Eddie. “We’d still have to swim from the base of the falls to the bridge though—right under their noses.”

  “Okay.” Eddie nodded. “But if you could do it, then maybe we get all the soldiers on one side of the river somehow and blow the bridge,” Eddie continued. “It cuts off
their speed—levels the field.”

  Danny was nodding now. “But how would we—”

  Eddie pulled something out of his backpack. A radio. “With this,” he replied. “I took two off the dead snipers.”

  Danny was hearing him out but clearly remained unconvinced. “We’d need an officer to get them to move all those troops, and we’d need to know where to send them.” Danny was shaking his head now. “We wouldn’t know where to start.”

  “What if I went down there alone? If I didn’t speak English maybe they’d know I wasn’t American. Maybe I could tell them you’d tried to kill me and direct them to where you supposedly are.”

  “No way, Eddie,” Blake objected immediately. “They’d see through it and kill you.”

  “I agree with Blake. I can’t let you do that.”

  “You don’t trust me?” Eddie looked at my brother with a sudden twinge of anger in his voice.

  “No, Eddie. This is not about trust.”

  “Explain then.” Eddie was staring coolly at him.

  “You are too valuable. I know you lost your brother, your wife, Cera—pretty much everything. I know you’re angry, and you want to get these guys back. But you’re too valuable. I have big plans for you back in Hawaii. You are critical to our future, the kind of man America needs—that the world needs. We can’t jeopardize that if we don’t have to. And…” Danny put his hand on Eddie’s shoulder. “There’s Isabelle. What if she’s still alive?”

  Danny’s words gave me a glimpse into the depth of his mind, and the forethought he was putting into all of his—all of our—actions. You need to listen to yourself, Danny. I watched Eddie nod as he accepted his role in the bigger picture and the possibility Isabelle was still out there.

  “So what other option is there?” Eddie asked.

  “I don’t know that there is one,” Danny muttered, glancing back over the ledge at the soldiers below.

  “Isn’t it at least worth a shot?” Blake asked him.

  I was waiting for him to say no. Instead Danny shrugged. “Why not?”

  I saw Blake open his mouth to say something, but he closed it when Danny answered. By the look on his face Blake hadn’t been expecting that response either.

  Danny shared his plan. “I think I’ll take Blake, Hayley, and the radios with me. I’d like to move us all down to the base of the dam, but even if they’re not using thermal up here with the fires, I’m sure they are down there—where there’s nothing. We’re only safe in the ghost suits.” He looked around to see if anyone had any objections and—seeing none—he went on. “We’ll sneak down the north cliff and put Blake in position on this side of the bridge, in case we have to fall back or need cover fire. I think we can get him a good spot about five or six hundred yards from the bridge, swim past these guys, and blow the bridge. We’ll draw their attention and get them to come after us. Blake, you and Eddie use that distraction to get transportation—however you can—and you get Flynn and Ava to Disneyland. Ava says the bunker there is somewhere near a lagoon, and it’s been there forever, so it’s not at the California Adventure park. That narrows it down to Tom Sawyer’s Island or Pirates of the Caribbean.”

  I saw Ava nodding, although it was also obvious she didn’t like the idea of being away from Danny. Danny, for his part, wasn’t even looking at her. Whether something had happened between them or he was just intensely focused, I couldn’t be sure, but I did find it curious he wanted me with him instead of her.

  Danny pulled Blake and Eddie away from us for a few minutes, and I took that time to do the same with Flynn. “You okay?”

  She nodded. “Yes.”

  “You stay by Blake, okay?”

  “I will.”

  “Blake is a great guy. In my family, we don’t make promises when we can’t control the outcome, so I won’t guarantee anything.” I took her hand. “But Blake would give up his own life before he’d let anything happen to you—that I promise.”

  The reassurance worked. “And Flynn, try to get a gun if you can. Keep yourself alive.” Flynn squeezed my hand. “And her too,” I added, nodding at Ava.

  Flynn smiled. “Are you sure?”

  I smiled back. “Yeah.”

  “You might regret that later.”

  “You’re probably right.” We watched Danny, Blake, and Eddie crawl back toward us. “Flynn,” I whispered, pulling her head against mine.

  “Yo.”

  “You probably haven’t heard this a lot recently.” I kissed her cheek. “But I love you.”

  She turned toward me with a smile. “Thank you, Hayley.” Her eyes teared up. “I love you too.”

  I playfully nudged her. “You ever been to Disneyland?”

  “No.” She shook her head. “But I heard it’s the happiest place on Earth.”

  “Yeah.” I couldn’t help but smile. “Something like that.”

  SIXTY-TWO – Plan B (Hayley)

  ---------- (Thursday. August 11, 2022.) ----------

  I slipped into Blake’s “ghost suit” and tightened the straps to make it fit me as snugly as it could. It was still big, but it would have to work. Danny and Blake set to covering me with branches, leaves, and a variety of earthly debris—sticking the natural camouflage to the little Velcro straps that covered the suit. Blake switched packs with Danny since Blake’s only had the explosives, some ammo and a cold weather compact sleeping bag. The explosives were sealed in a waterproof pouch, but Danny took it a step further sliding the pack inside his ghost suit. Then we covered him up as they’d done to me.

  We said our “goodbyes” and “good lucks,” split off from the group, and slowly inched our way down the side of the hill—around the waterfall—our eyes never leaving the soldiers. We edged our way back over to the river and slid into the water. So far, so good.

  Blake’s ghost suit wasn’t quite tight enough on me to keep the water out so—as we entered the pool below the falls—the freezing mountain drainage chilled my skin. I’d have to live with it. Danny carefully helped me remove all the leaves and brush from the suit replacing them with floating sticks and branches we found at the base of the falls. The goal—if anyone saw the debris attached to us—was to look like we belonged in the river.

  He placed one end of a long, clear, narrow tube in my mouth and wove it through the sticks connected to my hood. “Breathing tube,” he whispered. “Keep your face in the water, your mouth shut, and breathe normally. If you get water in it don’t blow it out forcefully, okay? And lift your eyes up as little as possible.”

  Sure, no problem. Shit! “Okay.” I nodded.

  We were about 350 yards from the bridge now, and once we kicked off there’d be no stopping until we were underneath it—if we made it that far. I could feel my heart pulsating through the water, and I couldn’t stop my teeth from chattering—both from the cold and the nerves—but I took one look at Danny and nodded when he did. Here we go.

  We pushed off and slowly drifted a hundred yards apart—like two piles of sticks—down the middle of the river. I clutched my bow and arrows beneath me, careful to keep them from getting hooked on anything. As the river approached the bridge, the current picked up and so did the number of rocks in the increasingly shallow water. The sharp stones were abusing my shoulders, ribs, and chest, and with each direct blow, it took all I had to not lift my head and cry out. I cursed into my breathing tube instead.

  Suddenly I felt a strong hand grab my arm and pull me toward the side. I knew it was Danny, but I kept my head down just in case. He tapped my head, and I lifted my eyes above the water. We were under the bridge. Thank God! I glanced up at Danny, and he was looking up at the bridge crossbeams above us. He then looked down at me and motioned for me to climb out of the water with him. Danny reached inside the front of his suit and pulled out a small box—about the size of a Rubik’s Cube—wrapped in a plastic bag. He unwrapped it and tied it securely to one end of a thin rope, connecting the other end to a large hook. He whispered in my ear, “I need you to
climb up there.” He pointed up at the middle arch of the bridge’s underside. “I need you to hook this dynamite up there so it’s hanging about three feet below the bridge.”

  No fricking way! “Are you serious?” I knew he was. “How—”

  “Hayles.” Danny cut me off, using my old nickname. “I brought you along because I know you can do this. With my arm, I can’t. It was you or Blake, and he has several broken ribs.”

  Seriously? Flynn was right. He was hurt worse than he’d let on.

  Danny looked back up at the beam and then back at me. “You can do this.”

  I looked up at the steel arch and followed it down to the concrete base where we were. “Danny, if I fall—”

  “You won’t.”

  Wish I were that confident. “If I drop the—”

  “Hayley.” He took my arm. “You won’t.”

  Seriously. Lend me a little of that confidence. “Okay,” I whispered, shaking my head in disbelief that I was even saying this. “I’ll try.”

  I stripped to my underwear—to free myself from the weight of my soaked clothes—and started to climb the base of the bridge. Danny initially helped me keep my footing on the slippery wall, until I was able to grasp the arched beams overhead. I had the dynamite cube looped around my neck, and I glanced nervously out toward the middle of the bridge. I somehow had to monkey-bar sixty yards or so out to the middle of the bridge, hang the dynamite, and then come all the way back. Right!

  This was a Hail Mary if there ever was one, but Danny was right—I was our only shot. Everyone was counting on me. It was time to make up for my earlier mistake. This is for Cera and Axel.

  I moved quickly, knowing my muscles would require that. I flew past the first thirty yards, then forty, and was approaching fifty when the burn began. I clenched my teeth and pushed on toward the middle, arriving at the beam Danny had indicated just as my arms were about to give out. I threw my leg over the bar connecting the two beams and allowed my entire body to balance—and rest—on the thin ledge for a minute. I looked back at Danny, who was watching me carefully, and gave him a thumbs-up. He returned the gesture, and I carefully unhooked the dynamite cube from around my neck. I attached it to where the beam met the bar I was lying on, and I slowly let it hang down to where Danny signaled he wanted it.